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Open Source Brings Down Cost of Wireless Rollout
8/13/2008
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One creative way to keep down the cost is to buy relatively inexpensive, low-end access points (APs), then upgrade the firmware to more powerful open source firmware before installing them. Alfred University, a 2,300-student school in upstate New York, has saved tens of thousands of dollars by doing just. It has rolled out several hundred "upgraded" enterprise-grade 802.11g APs,so far, and plans to continue with more.
By replacing the firmware, the university has essentially created access points on steroids, taking consumer-grade APs and beefing them up with free enterprise-level open source firmware. The result: inexpensive 802.11g APs with many of the features and capabilities of a much costlier product. The school's bottom line: Avoiding spending perhaps a quarter of a million dollars on a major wireless upgrade, only to end up with a system that could be obsolete in five years as wireless standards continue to rapidly evolve.
The Alfred University campus, located in the Alleghany Mountains in upstate New York, was wireless in its most heavily used public areas before the open source project. Dorms, however, were hardwired with a "port-per-pillow" scheme. When students informed the administration via a survey that they wanted wireless in the dorms as well, IT Services Director Gary Roberts said he challenged his team to come up with a wireless solution that was both powerful and cost-effective They came up with an unusual solution, and after successful testing last year in several locations, Roberts and his staff have rolled out nearly 200 access points in the last few months.
"I basically wanted to find the most cost-effective solution," Roberts said. Using the less-expensive consumer-grade APs saved hundreds of dollars per unit. The university purchased about 200 for this project, at about $60 per unit, and has rolled out most of them, saving the remainder for any coverage gaps they may discover over time.
Since a more traditional wireless solution can cost $250 to $500 or more per AP, Roberts figures he saved somewhere between $38,000 and $88,000 in access points alone.
Alfred U's original wireless network consisted of Linksys consumer-grade 802.11b APs, implemented years ago. The school planned to upgrade and expand the entire wireless network to 802.11g when Roberts and his team hit on the open-source solution.
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